British Medical Journal did something quite awful today. It published seven articles around sports, exercising and nutrition, and how everything works in performance. Most of the articles scavenge and go through hundreds of researches and studies behind everything around sports nutrition and performance. Sports drinks being the main subject. Below is the link to all those articles brought to you by Yoni Freedhoff. http://www.weightymatters.ca/2012/07/th ... sault.html

The most interesting was the article checking out different sport hydration and nutrition claims. These are the "myths" that are pretty much broken down. It gives a different look to evidence given before. These things might need way more research to be bulletproof:

Discussion? Science is hard. There is either good science or bad science. Apparently, I've been reading more bad science. Altough there still are things that are not mythbusted but very true. Like the fact that correct nutrition pretty much eliminates the NEED for any post workout shakes.

Make sure to read the articles, they are interesting even though science might not interest you. Behold a quote:

Quote:

"From our analysis of the current evidence, we conclude that over prolonged periods carbohydrate ingestion can improve exercise performance, but consuming large amounts is not a good strategy particularly at low and moderate exercise intensities and in exercise lasting less than 90 minutes. There was no substantial evidence to suggest that liquid is any better than solid carbohydrate intake and there were no studies in children. Given the high sugar content and the propensity to dental erosions children should be discouraged from using sports drinks."

OK, so here's my quick and dirty review of the paper. It is a summary paper, looking at existing studies. It is not a metanylisis (a study that merges the data from many studies), but a summary.

Urine color, and thirst as indicators of hydration:

Shows no evidence that watching urine color is of value. Up to a point, dark urine just means that the kidneys are doing their job of retaining available water.

An important point is that most people thing that large amounts of water, and drink well beyond their needs. This is dangerous.

Quote:

None of the eight studies looked at the correlation between urine colour and overhydration. This important oversight makes it difficult to recommend urine colour as a safe hydration assessment tool: attempts to produce pale or straw coloured urine may go too far, potentially leading to overhydration and hyponatraemia.16 Many of the studies recommend a stopping point, often using the 8-point scale to assess urine colour described by Armstrong and colleagues.5 but this seems to be based on speculation rather than research.

An important point. Overhydration has been responsible for deaths.

Quote:

Although we could not find a report in the medical literature of dehydration being a direct cause of death in marathon runners, we did find overhydration was responsible for several deaths.24 25 By following advice to “drink before thirst,” many athletes are drinking too much, which does not help performance and puts them at risk. A recent study of 88 participants in the London marathon found that 11 (12.5%) developed asymptomatic hyponatraemia.26

So, drink according to thirst, and not by urine color or by trying to drink before you become thirsty. I think old codger has been saying that on this forum for years.

Stimulants

The analysis of existing studies weakly supports the use of stimulants.

Carb/Prot combos for post-workout recovery and performance

Very weak evidence for the claims. But how many of us use supplements for this particular purpose? This did not look at other perported effects of supplements, in particular of protein supplements.

Quote:

BCCAs

The only significant benefit that was shown in the studies reviewed was for increased performance with long-term supplementation, and then it was no different for BCCAs vs. simple protein supplements, only when they were compared to placebo. In conditioned athletes, there is very limited evidence that BCCAs may slightly reduce soreness and enhance recovery.

Compression garments

This is a claim that I'm not familiar with. There is some evidence that wearing the garment for 24 hours after exercise reduces muscle soreness. Wow. I'd love to wear a tight-fitting set of long-handles for a full 24 after sweating it up in the gym! What a great idea. Happily for me, this summary showed nothing that convinces me of the necessity or benefit of doing so!

_________________Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e4737This is another of the articles in the BMJ series. It looks at the history of sports drinks, the practices of the companies that make them and the complicated links that these companies have with the sports and nutrition science establishment.

_________________Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

A lot of the articles cover the same ground but from differing points of view, and in varying depth.

This one http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e4797 covers research into one product, Lucozade (apparently this is big in the UK--I'm not familiar with it, but then again, I don't pay much attention to sports drinks). It covers a lot of methodological and procedural issues in research, and may be of interest to many of you for this reason alone.

_________________Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

This is a commentary published along with the studies. It summarized nicely the issues of hydration on sports performance. It should make it clear that any claims that people should drink a particular amount of water per day, or drink before feeling thirsty during sports are nonsense. It should also put a bit of fear in those who drink more than they need to, and convince them that over-hydration is a far greater danger than dehydration.

_________________Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

A lot of the articles cover the same ground but from differing points of view, and in varying depth.

This one http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e4797 covers research into one product, Lucozade (apparently this is big in the UK--I'm not familiar with it, but then again, I don't pay much attention to sports drinks). It covers a lot of methodological and procedural issues in research, and may be of interest to many of you for this reason alone.

Gatorade is similar to lucozade I think - its made by glaxosmithkline, I imagine they sell an equivalent abroad. you are American right?

Panorama (an investigative journalism show from the UK) did a show the other day called "The Truth About Sports Nutrition". The findings were basically that sports drinks like lucozade etc are essentially just sugary crap. They do have some benefit if you are engaging in exercise for over 3 hours though, which, unfortunately does not apply to the vast majority of people who drink them.

This is a claim that I'm not familiar with. There is some evidence that wearing the garment for 24 hours after exercise reduces muscle soreness. Wow. I'd love to wear a tight-fitting set of long-handles for a full 24 after sweating it up in the gym! What a great idea. Happily for me, this summary showed nothing that convinces me of the necessity or benefit of doing so!

I believe there is some positive effects in wearing compression garments during your workout.

One of the most controversial and innovate uses of "compression garment" like training is...

MILD Blood Flow Restriction/Occlusion Training

Research indicates that MILD restriction of blood flow to the muscles during a workout with light loads (20-50% of your 1 repetition max) creates an anabolic enviroment.

Occlusion Training/Kaatsu Training ratchets up "compression garments" by applying a tourniquet to the proximal part of the leg and/or arm.

In other words, tie a tourniquet to the upper part of your leg by your crotch and the upper part of your arm, under your arm pit.

MILD blood flow restriction mean that the tourniquet does not completely shut off blood flow to the muscles. Some blood trickles in to the muscles.

Thus, those unable to use higher training loads/percentages to increase muscle mass and strength were able to increase strength and muscle mass with loads of as little as 20% or 1RM. (Injured, elderly, etc)

I realize how absurd this appears. That was my initial thought on it when I read about it late in 2008.

However, when you examine it in detail you find that everyone involved in resistance training has unknowingly applied "blood flow restriction" at some point in their training session.

Exterme Occlusion Training For Strength

One of the most fascination pieces of research is on what I'd term, "Extreme Occlusion Training". The research is from the National Strength and Conditioning Research Journal.

"Extreme Occlusion Training" means the almost all blood flow to the muscles was shut down, BRIEFLY.

With extreme blood flow "Occlusion Training" the "tourniquet or tourniquet effect" is only applied during the training set. Once the set is complete, the "tourniquet or trouniquet effect" is IMMEDIATELY removed until the next exercise set.

The research showed that near "complete blood flow restriction" was obtained when wearing a "powerlifting suit and knee wraps."

The result was the "powerlifing suit and knee wrap" occlusion training method dramatically increased strength compared to the control group (no occlusion training).

It is a general myth among the athlete is that the more protein they eat, the more muscle they gain, but the fact is that the vast majority of athletes meet their daily protein needs without even really trying. Extra protein beyond what's needed is just extra calories.

Except that protein is more filling than other macro-nutrients so a protein rich diet makes it easier to gain fat free muscle.

Jennifer, why don't you expand a little on your comments and make us believe that there is a real person on the other end of the line?

_________________Stu Ward_________________Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~HippocratesStrength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley_________________Thanks TimD

It is a general myth among the athlete is that the more protein they eat, the more muscle they gain, but the fact is that the vast majority of athletes meet their daily protein needs without even really trying. Extra protein beyond what's needed is just extra calories.

It's true we meet our needs. But what kind of athlete would only eat what he needs? Athletes need more to get better and bigger, and it's atleast sometimes proved by research that excess protein and Branched chain amino acids in particular help to give an edge.

The articles doesn't prove anything !! you need to research by yourself and still the article has something to define then it must be with the proof to describe what statement has been made and why it is being made...

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